A man accused of killing a Florida Panther pleaded guilty Friday at the Fort Myers district court.More >>

A Naples man pleaded guilty to killing a Florida Panther in Collier County nearly three years ago.More >>

A Naples man was sentenced Thursday for killing an endangered Florida panther in October 2009.

In May 2012, Todd Alan Benfield pleaded guilty to killing the panther.

Benfield was sentenced to 60 days home confinement, 30 days intermittent custody, 3 years probation, fine of $5,000, community service payment of $5,000, 200 hours community service at the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge or the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, a hunting ban during probation, attending a hunter safety course and giving a public apology.

"He will put it in the paper, two consecutive weeks, and that means a lot to me to educate the public," said John Elofson, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "We take it very seriously."

He was also ordered to forfeit the bow, arrows, tree stand and accessories used to kill the panther.

Special Agent Elofson was
part of team of seven federal and state agencies investigating the case.

He says Benfield admitted he was in his tree stand hunting deer when he killed the panther with a bow and arrow on October 8, 2009. The panther was killed in Woodland Grade, in the Golden Gate Estates area of Collier County.

The day after he killed the panther, Benfield and another person moved the panther in an attempt to conceal it.

On October 10, Benfield returned and removed his tree stand from the tree.

The dead panther was discovered by a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer on October 10th.

A genetic analysis of the remains determined it was a Florida Panther, an endangered species.

But Special Agent Elofson says Benfield's confession
came only after federal agents used that DNA evidence to pin him to the
killing.

"He did not start off cooperating, definitely. He - you know, there's a a difference between someone who cooperates on an investigation and someone who maybe at the end comes in reluctantly and then cooperates," he said.